Larry Langford told U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers that as Fairfield mayor and a Jefferson County commissioner, he regularly asked businessmen who received contracts to contribute to charities he controlled.

Langford, who now is Birmingham's mayor, testified last June that he asked the contractors, as his friends, to contribute to a scholarship fund he controlled and a skeet shooting charity. Langford said in response to questions from SEC lawyers that he asked many people to contribute.

''Everybody, yes,'' he said, according to a document obtained by The Birmingham News and identified as a June SEC interview.

Langford, who has said he believes he is the target of a federal criminal investigation, declined to discuss his June testimony when contacted Wednesday evening.

''The Birmingham News will not try me in their paper,'' Langford said. ''It appears since you all couldn't get the man you wanted elected mayor, that you all supported, you've determined that you're going to try to destroy me on the back end.''

Langford's testimony about contributors to his private charities came during a daylong June 21 interview with SEC lawyers investigating payments Langford received from Montgomery lobbyist Al LaPierre in 2003. The testimony also reveals Langford's handling of his private charitable causes. Birmingham City Council members have raised questions about a private foundation Langford wants to handle the purchase of laptop computers for city students.

Langford said the $125,000 LaPierre provided was loans from a longtime friend that neither reported to state officials until they were publicized. Langford told SEC lawyers that LaPierre paid off one $50,000 bank loan for him and lent him an additional $75,000.

In December, Langford told SEC lawyers in a separate meeting that LaPierre actually lent him a total of $150,000 in 2003, although he didn't offer details about the additional $25,000, according to a separate transcript filed in federal court.

When he was Fairfield mayor, Langford arranged lobbying contracts for LaPierre. LaPierre also received at least $100,000 from Montgomery banker Bill Blount, who was paid millions of dollars in connection with Jefferson County finance deals when Langford was a commissioner. But Langford has said LaPierre has never been paid for county business.

Langford's June testimony was his first appearance before SEC lawyers who have been investigating Jefferson County bond deals. The SEC has notified Langford and others that the investigation is focusing on whether anyone received or gave improper payments for a role in the county financing deals.

Langford told The News in September that he discussed with the SEC the 2003 payments from LaPierre, which he also described in The News' interview as loans from a friend. Langford said he secured the loans from LaPierre, using commercial property owned by a corporation he serves in as collateral.

Payments to LaPierre
SEC lawyers quizzed Langford during his June testimony about payments Blount made to LaPierre about the time LaPierre was helping Langford with his personal finances. They also asked if Blount had any involvement.

Langford said he didn't know where LaPierre got the money to help him.

''I just thought I was independently, you know, makes a lot of money. He did a friend a favor,'' Langford said.

At one point during the testimony, an SEC lawyer asked Langford to review an e-mail that Blount sent to another banker involved in county financial deals. In the e-mail, Blount tells the banker that Langford ''is hitting us up for something for his ministry.'' Blount also states in the email that LaPierre says ''it isn't much.''

Langford told the lawyers Blount was wrong, it was not his ministry that needed the contributions. He said the money was going to a church summer camp for kids, ''and I ask everybody I know of if they would help buy Bibles and send the kids to camp.''

Langford said Blount, LaPierre and other businessmen were asked to help raise about $5,000 each year for the camp.

''Oh, it would range, I guess, like $1,000, $1,500,'' Langford testified. ''They didn't give the checks to me. They gave them to the church.''

Personal charities
Langford said he also sought contributions for two charities he operated himself. He formed a scholarship fund as Fairfield mayor to honor a student killed during an accident and a skeet shoot to benefit United Cerebral Palsy.

''And did you ever ask Mr. LaPierre or Bill Blount to donate to that charity?'' an SEC lawyer asked Langford.

''Everybody, yes,'' he answered.

''Did you know how much they gave on average?''

''No, ma'am. I don't,'' Langford said.

Langford told the SEC lawyers that he continued to raise money for his two charities from businessmen after he became a Jefferson County commissioner in 2002. He said he continued seeking money for the causes through 2005, and perhaps into 2006.

''I think I did it a couple years,'' Langford said about the skeet shoot charity after he became commissioner.

''May have done it the last year,'' he said when asked about the scholarship charity.